Make way for the cheesecake holiday

June 3, 2008 - 1:37 PM by Nicky

It’s almost Shavuot and we all know what that means – cheesecake.

I know, I know, it’s also got religious significance too, but when I ask my Israeli friends and family what Shavuot means to them, they always say cheesecake.

So in honor of the cheese holiday (I like the way the food manufacturers divvy up the holidays so nicely here, tubishvat – dried fruits, hannukah – doughnuts and fried food, rosh hashena – fish heads, and pomegranate etc. etc), anyway in honor of the cheese holiday, I’m going to give you my special cheesecake recipe – thanks Delia.

This cheesecake graces our table every Shavuot, and many meals in between. It rarely makes it beyond the dinner, and is an instant hit at parties. It tastes great and it’s so simple that my husband even made it on an army base while he was doing his annual army service. That year he was voted most popular dessert maker at his base, and is now required to serve three times a year instead of just once.

You will need:

225 g petite buerre biscuits (crushed and bashed into crumbs)
110g butter

700g of soft white cheese (I used to use 9%, but in deference to cholesterol fears now use 5%, or even 3%)
3 eggs
175g sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

250ml whipped cream

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F, or 150 degrees C.

So melt the butter in a saucepan and stir the crushed biscuits in. Then transfer them into a tin (23cm, 5-7.5cm deep).

Combine the cheese, eggs and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat together. Then mix in the vanilla essence and pour the mixture over the biscuit base, smoothing it out.
Cook for 30 minutes in the oven, and then turn the oven off, and leave the cheesecake to get cold inside.
Then chill it for at least two hours.
Just before serving whip up the cream and top the cake with it.

Now usually I like to put strawberries on the top, but strawberries are long over in Israel by Shavuot, so I use frozen raspberries mixed with sugar – which I put in a side dish so whoever wants can pour it over the top.

Mmm. Move over Nigella.

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